File:The British grasses and sedges (1858) (14760842831).jpg

Identifier: britishgrassesse00prat (find matches)
Title: The British grasses and sedges
Year: 1858 (1850s)
Authors: Pratt, Anne, 1806-1893
Subjects: Botany Grasses
Publisher: London, Society for promoting Christian knowledge
Contributing Library: University of British Columbia Library
Digitizing Sponsor: University of British Columbia Library

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afoot or a foot and a half high, the spike about twoinches long, and the leaves are flat and rather rough.Both this and the next plant seem to be known bythe name of Squirrel-tail Grass; and though there isconsiderable nutriment in the foliage, yet so much dothe prickly awns injure the mouths of horses, thatone of the greatest recommendations to an inn in theIsle of Thanet used to be, that the hay was withoutany admixture of Squirrel-tail Grass. The awns ofthese barley-grasses are not only long and slender, butthey are also thickly set with a double row of veryminute spines, so that if this plant happen to intrudeitself into the pasture, it causes much irritation to thetongue and throat of an animal eating it. Theseprickly awns wifl, on the slightest friction, propel theplant rapidly along, as every country child well knows,from the common practice of putting an ear of barley-grass into the sleeve, and allowing it to make its wayfrom the wrist to the shoulder, whicli it will do in the
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1 fiiKSi rri Hiii./\r, Ilitic-uni cnstaliini 2 ntisjiv nr.A w, T lUJiifUTii iiLiiii^o w.oit roicn oiMSSi TMHHOtIS l«0«iTKl» W. T C-BIII BRITISH GRASSES AND SEDGES. 123 course of a few minutes. It grows chiefly on sandy soils.(PI. 269, fig. 5.) 4. //. maritimum (Sea-side Barley).—Spike compact,erect; glumes rough, the inner one of the lateral spikeletshalf egg-shaped, the rest bristle-shaped and rough ; awnof the outer glumella in the middle spikelet more thantwice as long as the awn of the lateral ones; middlespikelet with both stamens and pistils, lateral ones withneither; root fibrous and annual. This is the smallestof the species, and scarcely ever more than half a foothigh, with an erect stiff stem which is prostrate at thebase and bears a small spike. It much resembles thelast species, but is shorter, more rigid, and of a paler,almost sea-green colour. It is not universally distri-buted on our sea-coast, but is not uncommon on grassyand sandy places there. It flowers all the

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